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Sunday, September 22, 2013

TV Stand - Part II, Making dust.

This weekend I dug into the pile of lumber for the tv stand. I had already gotten the legs milled square so next up was all of the stretchers for the case.

Leg blanks on the right, pile of stretchers on the left.

The one piece of equipment that I really wish I had room for is a jointer. Until the day I come across a deal too good to pass up and just make room for one I'm working on my upper body conditioning. working my way through that stack of lumber above proved to be great practice. I really do appreciate how nice cherry is to work with.

First step was to touch up the blade on the jointer.

Next up are traversing passes with the #5. The cambered blade makes quick work of the rough cut surface.

Then on to the #7.

I ended up breaking out the feeler gauges to speed things up. ..yes speed them up. With the gauges I had a way of knowing it was flat enough and not chasing after that last tiny bit of light under the straight edge. Went for 0.005" flatness on the faces and 0.002" on the edges.

Checking the edge to make sure its still square.

Finally done jointing.

I spent the better part of saturday getting the rest of the parts jointed. Then it was time for a bike ride. fall is on its way, there was some color already up high.

Today I took the dog out on the bike first thing to wear her out then it was back to the shop.

Got the router set up to cut the mortises on the legs.

One new addition the arsenal for this project was a edge guide for the router. It sure beats cutting mortises at the router table. After one un-intended practice leg and some more milling practice I made some real progress. I found that plunging to full depth at either end of the mortise first made things much easier.

Then it was on to finishing up the milling for the stretcher stock. I'm not sure whether the thickness planer or the bandsaw were the best addition to the shop this year, but I'm glad I've got both of them.

The final task for the evening was to get the table-saw and bandsaw set up to cut the tenons. Test boards fit well but I'm still not sure about cutting the tenon cheeks on the band saw. I may end up putting the dado stack on the table saw even though it doesn't leave quite as clean a surface.

Do you have a shoulder plane? http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,41182,41192&p=48430If so, no problem cutting the tenons with the table saw with a dado stack. If you don't however, I'd suggest cutting them with a rip blade (square teeth) and a tenoning jig. You'll get smoother cuts that way. Your other option, if you have neither, is to undercut with the dado and sand to fit.